Idi Amin 'close to death' in Saudi hospital

Idi Amin, one of Africa's most notorious dictators, was said to be close to death last night in a coma in a hospital in Saudi Arabia.

"He is now in a vegetative state and could die at any time," a source at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah told Reuters.

Hospital sources said that the 80-year-old former Ugandan president went into a coma on Saturday, when he was admitted. He was in the intensive care unit on an artificial respiratory machine and his family had been told that he might not survive.

Amin has been suffering from high blood pressure and deteriorating health. A hospital official told the Associated Press last night that his condition had stabilised. "The situation, according to the doctors, has improved," he said.

Earlier, the same official said Amin's condition had deteriorated so much that "we don't expect him to last until tomorrow."

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Amin has lived in exile in Saudi Arabia since being ousted from his East African homeland in 1979.

Under his despotic rule from 1971 to 1979 it is estimated more than 200,000 Ugandans were tortured and murdered. His regime ended in April 1979 when he was ousted by a combined force of Ugandan exiles and the Tanzanian army.

Amin, a Muslim, was given sanctuary by Saudi Arabia in the name of Islamic charity. A former boxing champion who once expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler, Amin has lived quietly in Jeddah on a government stipend with four wives.

Uganda's government has said it would put him on trial if he tried to return home. Although he is in effect exiled, his relatives are free to come and go and several of his children live and work in Uganda.

In Uganda, the independent Sunday Monitor reported that Amin had been receiving treatment for the past three months for hypertension and "general fatigue".

The paper said Nalongo Madina Amin - "Amin's favourite wife" - said that two of Amin's sons were with him at the hospital and had confirmed to her that he had fallen into a coma.